This week brings some new flowers into bloom, the first flush of blackcurrants and Mulberries, and with some frequent and heavy bursts of rain the annual polycultures are really starting to put on some growth.
Here's what we've been up to in the gardens this week
Last year together with The Polyculture Project 2019 crew, we built a floating aquatic island to support the wildlife in the irrigation reservoir over at Katelepsis, the volunteer/crew house. Unlike our other ponds that have been designed primarily to attract wildlife, this reservoir has no edges which would make life difficult for any aquatic plants or amphibians that decide to reside here. In addition, rectangular water bodies do not provide the proper habitat for wildlife to flourish and can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes due to the fact that frogs and fish that prey upon the mosquito larvae are unable to survive in such conditions, so it's definitely a good idea to come up with a solution. In the below image you can see the reservoir on the east side of the property with the two downpipes diverting rainwater from the roof into the lined pit.
In the above photo, the reservoir was empty because it was at the end of the season and the water had been used to irrigate the garden. Today, in the below photo, the reservoir is still empty, but this time because one of the surrounding stones fell in and ripped the liner with its sharp edge! The liner used for this pond is tri-laminate LDPE, and according to a specialist in an aquatic center, it is unfortunately notoriously tricky to fix. We have ordered the product that was recommended to us and hope to successfully repair the tear in the coming days in order to capture the rainfall in what is normally the wettest month of the year in our location.
The reservoir in June 2020. You can see how well established the plants in the rockery in the foreground have become after just one season's growth.
So, back to the small aquatic habitat island for the reservoir. The design is basically a wooden pallet that has empty plastic bottles with lids attached to the bottom with wire. This allows the pallet to float in the water. We then added some plant pots, pushing the wire through the top of the pots, and placed them in position.
The wire threaded through the top of the plant pots will help secure them in place.
The aquatic plants do not need the soil in the pots to survive as they will take their nutrients directly from the water, but for this to work, it's essential that the bottom of the plant pots are in the water. The soil should provide the extra weight needed to make sure the bottom of the pots are submerged. You could also use pebbles or sand.
On the left the plants on the floating island are getting ready to go into the reservoir. Nine months later on the right, in full leaf. The straw you see on the right-hand side of the island was mulch on a nearby plant bed that fell in, but the lizards and snakes love it and hide out there. For a more detailed description of how we made the island, please see here.
The first Orange Day Lily - Hemerocallis fulva is in flower today, and what a beautiful bloom it is too.
Orange Day Lily - Hemerocallis fulva in flower
Famous for it's beautiful orange flowers, which are edible, the Daylily is adaptable, very tolerant of lots of different soil types, and highly attractive to a range of pollinators including butterflies. PFAF gives the plant a 5/5 edibility rating, listing the tubers and leaves as also being edible. Reportedly, Daylily flowers last just one day, but each of the many stalks bears numerous flower buds, so the actual bloom time is much longer - more like weeks. Having started writing this yesterday and making a point of checking the flower today, I can indeed confirm the reports are true - the flower in the photo above has gone. Due to its spreading nature it's great for mass plantings and erosion control. The plant in our garden is really happy growing in the shade, creeping along the boundary wall of the property, making it an ideal candidate for shady groundcover or a border.
Hemerocallis fulva - Orange Daylily growing by the perimeter of the garden at Katelepsis
We are also growing Orange Daylilly in this polyculture that you can find more about here
The annual vegetables are doing really well at the moment, enjoying the balance of the recent heavy rains with long, warm and sunny periods. We've been experimenting with a new annual polyculture of tomatoes, french beans, basil, marigold, cabbage and garlic.
Annual polyculture with cabbage
We're also growing our usual annual polyculture Zeno at the residential house.
Some photos from Zeno
Zeno Plant List - The following plants are used in this polyculture;
Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum
Basil - Ocimum basilcium
French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris
Courgette - Cucurbita pepo
Butternut Squash - Cucurbita pepo
African Marigold - Tagetes erecta
French Marigold - Tagetes patula
Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis
It's been very successful in our home gardens for the last 10 years, and back in 2015, we scaled it up for the market garden for a 5-year comparative study. You can find the results here. For more info on plant spacing, management and maintenance of this polyculture see our previous post here.
It's interesting to think about planning annual polycultures in terms of layers like you might design a forest garden. When working with herbaceous plants, the tallest plant in the polyculture becomes the canopy. With good selection, the benefits of plant layering i.e, resource sharing in time and space, can work well with whatever plants you use. For example in the below photo, you can see the layering of Zeno - where tomatoes are the canopy layer, basil, and marigold the shrub layer, butternut squash a ground layer, beans a vertical layer and the wild natives that grow around the edges could be considered a herb layer.
Layers in Zeno, an annual polyculture
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
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We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
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You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
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We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
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| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
What we think is a Spanish Dagger Tree - Yucca gloriosa, is just starting to bloom in the garden of Katelepsis, the crew house. It ain't called a 'Dagger Tree' for nothing - the leaves are very sharp and can easily pierce the skin and probably tougher substances. I'm not surprised to learn that they are often used as security guards and planted outside windows or near houses, like a living security hedge! Native to southern regions of the US and Mexico, and hardy to zones 6 - 11, Spanish Dagger Tree has been used for centuries in basket making, clothing, and footwear. PFAF gives it an edibility rating of 3/5 and many sources describe the flowers as edible, absolutely delicious, and can be eaten raw or fried (I haven't tried it yet). Highly ornamental, this interesting plant could be a worthy candidate for a spot in a dry area due to its ability to be drought resistant, as well as tolerating maritime exposure. It gets pretty tall, growing to 2m by 1.2m, which gives it quite a striking appearance.
Welcome to our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture plants, seeds, bulbs and Polyculture multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Yuu can also find our full list of trees. shrubs and herbs for forest gardens on our website here
Spanish Dagger Tree - Yucca glorisa, The flowers of the Spanish Dagger Tree - Yucca gloriosa
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
|
| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay
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